PRESS

What do Shimon Peres, Zubin Mehta, Prince Charles, Teddy Kollek, Moshe Dayan and Margaret Thatcher have in common—all of them together with additional personalities and great leaders from around the world—were photographed years ago by Bern Schwartz. His photographs are now being exhibited at two exhibits in Israel.

Ken Tanaka's comment to my column of two weeks ago reminded me that I've never written about my experiences printing Bernard Lee Schwartz's portrait photographs. The Bernard Lee Schwartz Foundation, guided by his widow Ronny Schwartz, has been my largest and oldest printing client; we have a relationship that now goes back 30 years. Sadly, I never met Bern; the relationship started four years after his death.

The Bernard Lee Schwartz Foundation has donated a collection of thirty-four portraits to the Hoover Institution. Among the images are those of royalty, heads of state, diplomats, military leaders, and literary figures. Michael Schwartz, president of the Schwartz Foundation and son of Bernard “Bern” Schwartz, coordinated the donation.

Twiggy, Margaret Thatcher, Rudolf Nureyev and Henry Moore are just a few of the famous subjects in a collection of 140 photographs of notable Britons recently donated to the National Portrait Gallery by the Bernard Lee Schwartz Foundation, BBC News reported.

As part of the celebrations for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, the prestigious Bond Street gallery P. and D. Colnaghi held a fund-raising exhibition showing new portraits of leading members of Britain's cultural and political elite.

It's not at every photo exhibit that a critic renews an acquaintanceship with a duke whose photograph is on display, but this was a special occasion: a preview of Focus on Great Britons: Portraits by Bern Schwartz, Lever House, New York (15 April – 12 May 1983).

Bernard Lee Schwartz began a career in portrait photogrpahy when he was 60. Before the end of that career, at 64, he managed to take pictures of an unprecedented variety of well-known pepople throughout the world, and became one of the more important photographers of his time.

When Bern Schwartz turned 60, he decided to dedicate most of his energy to his favorite hobby—photography. He wanted to learn portrait photography as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. He started by learning its basics from the portrait photogrpaher Anthony Di Gesu in 1944. But Bern had seen my work in magazines over the years and had made up his mind to become my disciple.

A successful businessman with a lifelong interest in photography, Bern Schwartz has astonished the world with the success of his ambitious plans to take colour portraits of the leading decision and taste makers in English society, and elsewhere in the world.

Starting from scratch at age 60 and working mostly in Britain, American businessman Bern Schwartz become an accomplished portrait photographer in only four years, but died before he could reap the praise at home.

Bern Schwartz, an American business­man in his sixties, has come into photography late in life, yet he has persuaded almost every famous British personality to sit for him. On page 94 Ian Jack meets the man who believes in making his subjects look their colourful best.